Erikur Spald
Erikur Spald is a Remonian blacksmith who is currently travelling around the world while looking for materials to craft the perfect magical creation. Biography Early Years Born in Remonton, Erikur was the son of Gerald Spald, the castle blacksmith both during and after the Great War. Gerald had been renowned as one of the great human smiths of his time, crafting many fine weapons and armor, quite a few of them enchanted, several of which eventually becoming legendary. From the time he could hold a hammer, Erikur worked the forge and learned magic with his father, and tried to help in the First Battle of Remonton during which he received his scar and resided in the city after the end of the Great War and Cataclysm and witnessed events such as the brief Proninist takeover of the city and the devastating Second Battle of Remonton which leveled much of the city. Erikur chafed under his father's fame, wanting to build a reputation of his own and surpass him. Before he had a chance, Remonton faced a rebel army in the Third Battle of Remonton and fell to the Wretched when the Plague of Undeath was unleashed on the battlefield. Gerald fell with the city, forcing Erikur to flee with as much equipment as he could carry. For a time, Erikur was in a deep depression after his father's death. However, he soon resolved to follow his original goal. In honor of his father's memory, he vowed that he would craft the perfect magical creation. What form it will take, he has not yet figured out, though he is far from his goal. He has the skill, but he does not have the materials or know where to begin. He began wandering, but didn't stay in one place for more than a few days at any time. Godslayer Era A Dangerous Assignment Erikur's wanderings first landed him in Maar Sul City. He drank in one of the seedy taverns and was nearly mugged by a haggard trio until he used an enchantment on his hammer to frighten the thugs off. He later met a dwarf who offered him a deal: smuggle something of value to Libaterra. When Erikur questioned the dwarf more about the nature of such a secretive mission, the dwarf merely replied that all of the blacksmith's questions would be answered once he met his liaison in the Shark's Maw tavern. Erikur went to the tavern where, after initial and somewhat comical miscommunication with the barkeep, he went to the back room where he met with his liaison, a dwarf calling himself Jaws. The dwarf gave the blacksmith a pouch, asking him to smuggle it to the city of Trinity Gask in Libaterra, more specifically the Witch Elves inn. After initial hesitation, Erikur accepted the job when Jaws offered him good payment for the job. The blacksmith made sure to hide the the mysterious goods he was smuggling among his belongings and purchased a horse whom he dubbed Virgil. He then passed inspection at the gates of the city and headed to the countryside, beginning his long journey to Libaterra. Trial in the Ruins A storm caught Erikur and Virgil off-guard and, wanting to avoid as many travellers and potential marauders and soldiers along the way, they decided to rest on a nearby hilltop among old ruins. As soon as they'd settled down, Erikur noticed movement in the corner of his eye and remained vigilant, wondering if any cutthroat was hiding in the ruins. He went outside briefly and was, much to his surprise, hit by lightning which left him feeling dizzy. Not long after having been hit by lightning, the blacksmith heard a mysterious voice calling for him. The voice was saying something about receiving a gift. Erikur decided to follow this "voice from the heavens" and went outside again, shouting to the heavens above to show him what the voice meant. It was at that moment that he heard Virgil's panicked snorts and realized something was disturbing the horse. He cast a spell which lit the hilltop, and he saw a big hairy creature near the horse, which explained Virgil's scared reaction. The creature turned out to be a troll, and he wanted Virgil. Erikur did his best to distract the troll while still standing in place to hopefully receive the heaven's blessing. However, the troll was stubborn and kept dragging Virgil with him towards the ruined temple. Erikur finally caught the troll's attention by hitting him with an electrically charged dagger, and the resulting pain made the troll charge at Erikur who used the troll's anger against him by counterattacking him simultaneously. After a brief and brutal struggle, Erikur emerged victorious although he was also wounded in the process. He decided to go check in on Virgil, hoping that the horse was still alive. When he entered the ruins, he found Virgil but also more trolls, a female and a child, who turned out to belong to the same pack as the troll he had slain earlier. Realizing he had killed the female troll's mate and had left her child fatherless, Erikur offered them food as compensation. He learned that the troll he had fought hadn't intended to eat the horse but had needed it to transport his mate and child safely to what was referred to as a 'gathering'. The trolls needed a mount because they were too weak and exhausted to travel by foot because they had been pursued by local villagers before. The troll mother showed hostility to Erikur, however, and accused him of being a bloodthirsty murderer for having slain her mate. Erikur chose to leave the two trolls with some food rations and went back outside, intending to find out if the skies and the mysterious voice could still grant him some gift after all the trouble he'd been through. The voice had a different answer than he'd expected, however: because he had chosen to save Virgil and confront the trolls, he'd lost his opportunity to gain something else: an equivalent exchange had already been performed, and the choice had been made. Not long after the troll mother appeared outside, fury in her eyes. She attacked Erikur in blind and desperate rage, intending to avenge her mate's death by his hand. Erikur, realizing diplomacy would be next to impossible now after what he'd done, fought a vicious struggle against the female troll until he finally managed to slay her. The mysterious voice echoed mockingly in the blacksmith's ears as he stood on the troll mother's corpse, and he chose his next course of action: he went inside the temple ruins and snapped the frightened troll child's neck because he felt he couldn't take it with him as it'd slow him down and because it'd be even crueler in his view to leave the child alone to starve to death near the corpses of its parents. Erikur couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the macabre scene he'd ended up in and how he'd slain creatures who had only been trying to survive in the wilderness. He also realized that the mysterious voice he'd heard hadn't come from the heavens but had in fact been the very thing the people in Maar Sul had entrusted him with: the mysterious package hidden inside a wine skin. He learned from the voice before it faded away that it had managed to talk to him because he'd been struck by lightning which had 'heightened' his senses to hear its voice temporarily. The voice had also mentioned something about 'inheritors of the Stormborn, and this phrase puzzled the blacksmith greatly so he decided to investigate the mystery later. By this point Erikur, angered and saddened by what he had done, didn't care what kind of mess he'd now ended up in. He decided to see this mission to the end and then figure out his next course of action. Shady Transactions Erikur continued his journey to Trinity Gask and eventually reached it after a few weeks of travelling, staying out of sight of any patrolling soldiers just to be safe. He sought out the ''Witch Elves inn where he met with his dwarven contact and uttered the code word to inform him that he'd delivered the package safely. The dwarf took the contents of the wine skin and went to inspect it and returned later, acknowledging that the contents were what he'd expected them to be. He paid Erikur and sent him on his way. Erikur spent some time acquiring crafting materials and went outside the city, forging a zweihander with help from his magic. He named the sword Wrath. The blacksmith took Wrath with him back to Trinity Gask. He decided to speak with nearby Sinlarine elders about the Stormborn, hoping that the shamans might know something about it which he did not. His investigations eventually led him to converse with one of the elders, Earnan Finian, about the Stormborn after hearing some Sinlarine kids mention the name. Earnan helped shed some light on the mystery but questioned whether it was wise for a lone blacksmith to uncover mysteries of the distant past. Into the Woods Erikur witnessed a commotion on the streets of the city when ebony, humanoid creatures kidnapped a few people and fled into the woods with their quarry. Curious to find out what those creatures who had attacked the city were, he wound up riding Virgil to Survivor's Woods where the creatures had fled into. There, he met up with the paladin Osmond Locke and his female companion. More info later. Aliases and Nicknames ;Devin Gale :The alias that Erikur used to get by the Maar Sul City Guard when he started his trip to Trinity Gask. Appearance Erikur makes an imposing figure at 6'4" tall, broad shouldered and muscular with pale skin and brown eyes. He has ragged black hair and a barely trimmed beard. He has a knotted white scar that trails down from his forehead, around his left eye, and down to his jaw. His travelling outfit consists of some light armoring, generally some form of boiled leather or a chain shirt depending on the weather, a heavy cloak, black shirt, with brown trousers and boots, as well as a bandoleer to carry his tools. He is also partially blind in his left eye from years of working the forge. The scar on the left side of his face is from his first attempt to temporarily enchant a weapon when he was eleven to aid in the First Battle of Remonton. When Leon Alcibiates accessed the First Law of the Andain and briefly cancelled the spells of every magic user in the world, the item Erikur was working on exploded from the disruption. Fortunately, he managed to throw it away before it blew off his hands, though he was still hit by the shrapnel. The wound on his face was the only one that did not heal completely. Personality and Traits He has a very gruff and terse attitude, though it hides his rather keen and perceptive mind. Erikur is also prone to fits of rage when a project doesn't come out quite right, stemming from a pride and depression-fueled inferiority complex. A work that would be excellent to an average blacksmith is seen as a failure. He has an intense hatred of the undead as a result of the circumstances of Remonton's fall. He does not care for politics or morals. Any who can help him with his goal can be considered temporary allies at best. Any who get in his way can be considered enemies. Other smiths are rivals. Powers and Abilities Erikur is proficient with all common weapons, though he tends to wield a pair of hammers. His knowledge of magic does not extend beyond enchanting weapons, armor, and metal trinkets, and is of little use in combat other than to temporarily empower his weapons. His temporary enchantments tend to be rather simple and straightforward, such as a weapon that will return to his hand after being thrown or one that will cause a blast of force upon impact. However, he can only apply one at a time without causing the weapon to explode. He can also only use a certain amount of temporary enchantments before getting exhausted. His more permanent enchantments on the other hand do not take as much out of him because he uses magic circles to draw power from the earth as opposed to himself, but they are much more time-consuming to produce, ranging from days to months to create depending on the complexity of the enchantment, and the circle itself draws mana from him to stay active. Past and Current Projects Unnamed Ring: One of his more recently attempted creations, he crafted it one week before Remonton fell. It is a golden ring that is enchanted to replicate itself every week. However, everytime that it duplicates, the resulting ring is made of any metal except for gold. So far, he has managed to produce four rings: first a copper ring, second an iron and copper alloy ring, and a pair of iron rings for its third and fourth. An unforeseen side effect of the original ring is that it seems to be bound to his right hand and any rings that it creates appear on the unadorned fingers, though the subsequent rings can be removed. Any attempts on his part so far to adjust the enchantment have been exercises in futility. The most recent addition to his collection of rings is an iron ring flecked with a strange blue metal. Wrath: An enormous zweihander, its blade consists of a five foot slab of blunt iron capped with a decorative hilt in the shape of a roaring dragon with sapphire eyes. Erikur created it after his trip to Trinity Gask. It is obviously magical, but its abilities have yet to manifest and not even Erikur knows what will come of it. However, on the night it was finished, a single lightning bolt struck the plains outside of the city. Its name comes from the inscription on the blade, "Wrath shall spring eternal from the hearts of men. Wrath may be contained, smothered, withered, but never vanquished." Relationships Gerald Spald Gerald was Erikur's father whose death weights heavily on Erikur's mind. To honour his father's memory, Erikur has decided to craft the perfect magical creation, whatever it may be. Before Gerald's death, their relationship could be described as "rocky" at best. Erikur constantly felt as though he was living in his father's shadow. However, it never got to the point where he outright hated the man. He wanted to surpass him, not want him dead. Krauss Initially Erikur and Krauss's business was supposed to conclude when he handed him the package he had smuggled out of Maar Sul City. However, when Krauss's associates learned that Erikur had been infused with some of the mysterious stone's power, he was sent to retrieve the blacksmith. Erikur, figuring out that the dwarf's company was not preferable and wanting to distance himself from further shady deals, kept his distance much to Krauss's frustration. In the end Krauss's mission ended up in failure, and Erikur managed to disappear in the aftermath of the adventure in Survivor's Woods. Osmond Locke Erikur and Osmond met in the woods and got along at first, feeling they could work together to figure out what was going on. However, Erikur ended up being affected by rage fueled by the voice he had been interacting with, and ultimately Osmond turned against him, doing his best to quell the blacksmith's anger even by violent means if necessary. They parted ways after the adventure in Survivor's Woods, and whatever camaraderie they might've had was gone. Virgil Virgil is a horse Erikur purchased from Maar Sul City when he began his journey to Trinity Gask. See also *Gerald Spald *Virgil (horse) *Wrath Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Remon Category:Third Age